my thoughts on science

I'm going to start with some good news, as conservation is typically seen as a doom and gloom area of biology. There are more tigers now than when we last counted! It's the first time for over a century that tiger numbers have increased. This is not only great news for biodiversity but also for lovers of William Blake. Tigers are apex predators, and having a healthy population of the species at the top of the food chain if often crucial for the balance of habitats, for a good example of this see the impact of wolf reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park (or the many scholarly articles). So a healthy and growing tiger population is likely to be beneficial to the environment and other animals. They are also extremely charismatic species, probably up there with the panda and lion. Therefore, these animals have the ability to draw in tourists to come and see them in their native habitat, doing tigery things and everyone loves to see baby animals too. An odd feature of tiger conservation is the impact that the Dalai Lama had on poaching. Tiger skins, and other poached animal parts, were an important part of Tibetan society but the spiritual leader appealed to the people who then burnt their furs and this markedly reduced the market for poached animal products in the region. This highlights the importance of some key figure, almost like key stone species, in changing the behaviours of populations in ways that can benefit the environment.

However, and there is always a however in conservation, one of the reasons cited for the rise in tiger numbers is moving villages away from tiger habitats. Therein lies the essential problem of a large apex predator living in a very densely populated country: human-wildlife conflict. Solving this problem is what will, in the end, be what leads to the continued survival of this beautiful big cat.

Now to the sad conservation news. Disney's new film Zootropolis has been a smash hit in China. On the surface this might seem great, kids all over the country enjoying watching animals on screen and so maybe taking an interest in them and their behaviour/conservation status. In the trailer that I linked to there is an extended section with a sloth, very strange animals that have to go to the ground to defecate. Unfortunately the outcome seems to have been a bit more sinister, children have fallen in love the one particular character Finnick, who is a fennec fox. This has resulted in families buying fennec foxes for pets. Not only do solitary nocturnal species make awful pets but a rise in the trade of this species, just because of a film is a worrying sign for the trade in exotic species. This species is listed as least concern but it highlights a behavioural consumerism for wildlife that in the long run is unsustainable and if the next fad happens to be an endangered species then it could have huge ramifications for the continuance of a species in the wild.